History of the Plant Sciences Library and Collections
The PLANT SCIENCES LIBRARY provides a full range of services in the subject areas of Plant Sciences and Forestry. It is located within the Department of Plant Sciences and works in collaboration with CAB International (CABI), an intergovernmental organization providing services worldwide to agriculture, forestry, human health and the management of natural resources, and other international organisations.
The Library dates originally from 1621, and is founded on the formerly separate departmental libraries of Agricultural Science, Botany and Forestry. It has a total stock of around 200,000 books and pamphlets, 3900 reels of microfilm and some 2000 current serials plus another 4000 non-current. It provides the main collection in its subject area in the University of Oxford, and receives many visitors and e-mail, postal or telephone enquiries every year.
The Library collects current material in subject areas relevant to teaching and research in Plant Sciences, providing especially for the needs of undergraduates reading Biological Sciences, and for postgraduate students working for research degrees.
The Library is richly endowed with rare early botanical works, many dating from the 17th century, including taxonomic works still in regular use. Conservation work on this material has been funded by the British Library and the Hulme University Fund. Sibthorp’s Flora Graeca, has been digitised along with associated material, as part of the Oxford Digital Library, and has featured in several exhibitions.
In summer 2010 it is anticipated that the majority of the Library's collections will be transferred to the Radcliffe Science Library; taxonomic and rare materials will however remain in the Department alongside the herabarium collections to which they relate.